The New York Times: Hungarians in Ukraine are not loyal enough
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Based on the 2001 census in Ukraine, more than 150,000 ethnic Hungarians live in the country’s westernmost region, Transcarpathia. Their number decreased significantly in the last two decades due to their massive emigration to Hungary. However, there are still at least 120,000 Hungarians living in the region. The New York Times went to Transcarpathia to report about the local Hungarians’ attitude towards the Russian invasion, Hungary and Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán. They spoke with many local leaders and made some interesting conclusions. Below you can read our summary. We also added some comments where we thought the American news magazine was misled.
Hungarians’ allegiance questioned
The New York Times starts with the Trianon commemorations in Transcarpathia. The Kingdom of Hungary was torn up after WWI as a result of the Treaty of Trianon. The Great Powers gave large areas to the old and new neighbours: Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The problem is that more than 3,000,000 Hungarians populated these territories. Transcarpathia was given to Czechoslovakia in 1920, but after WWII, it became part of the Soviet Union. After the disintegration of Washington’s cold war enemy, Ukraine gained control over Transcarpathia. Today, it is one of the most underdeveloped and poorest regions.
The New York Times argues that Transcarpathian Hungarians started to commemorate the Trianon peace treaty (4 June 1920) only after PM Viktor Orbán came to power in 2010. Hungarians kept this year’s commemoration ceremony low profile in order not to provoke the war-stricken Ukraine and its nationalists, the American magazine wrote.
“I don’t see my place here in this country”
The New York Times states incorrectly that Transcarpathian Hungarians did not commemorate Trianon before 2010. However, they are right that such an act may provoke Ukrainian nationalism in the current situation. They argue that Hungarians living in Transcarpathia are in an ambivalent situation: they receive a lot of (mainly financial) help from Hungary, while Kyiv acted hostile towards its minorities after 2014. For example, in 2017, the Ukrainian parliament accepted a law that made it almost impossible to teach in minority languages, including Hungarian, Romanian or Russian at schools. That was a catastrophic decision from a Hungarian educational perspective since most Hungarians pursue their studies in their mother tongue.
“Most kids and parents say, “Why do I need the state language? I don’t see my place here in this country”,
László Zubánics, the leader of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Ukraine, quoted a local.
Although the Ukrainian government’s main target was the Russian minority in the east, Hungarians also suffered in the west.
Orbán wants votes?
The New York Times calls PM Orbán an authoritarian leader who causes trouble for Hungary’s neighbours by playing on ethnic Hungarians’ feelings of discrimination by their government. “We are stuck in the middle of the field, because on one side is Hungary, and the other side is Ukraine,” told Dávid Árpád, a local pastor, to the magazine. They argue that Orbán tries to “bring ethnic Hungarian enclaves in Ukraine and elsewhere under his sway.” The New York Times says the purpose is to keep him in power since these Hungarians have citizenship and a right to vote.
Why should Hungarians be loyal to Ukraine when they are treated as second class. Hungarians did not willingly moved to Ukraine, it is the result of the hateful Treaty of Trianon. Ukraine has no right to complain.
Wake up people! The NYT is a joke-second mention in a week.
This is the paper pushing the US was founded on slavery and is now being pushed in many schools across the country including elite private schools. Those evil white Europeans that came to the US the problem- if only Africa and other 3rd world countries had settled there especially after thousands of years of its success- think what they could have done in the Americas.
They hate Hungary and any conservative country – has nothing to do with news – it must comply to there narrative to be fit to print. The VP and now president were scooping up big Ukraine oil money for years and they couldn’t be bothered including DNH even when everything was documented on his sons laptop hardrive. It took the NYT almost 2 years to acknowledge it was all true long after the election. What should have been one of the biggest news stories ever was ignored- now they act like it’s no big deal even billion dollar deals with highest levels of the CCP.